That's Life, Folks
by niara a. tepes
Summary: InuSMxover: when someone dies, all people can do is move on. Better summary inside ReiInu
1. Prologue: Two Funerals

Niara: Hey! Uh, look, I don't update well and sometimes leave things unfinished, so, please bear with me if it takes me a long time to update any of my stories. Thanks!

And please review, but no flames. Those will be used whenever I next go camping.

Summary: When someone dies, all people have to fight to move on with their lives. But when the person who died is someone like Kagome Higurashi or Serena Tsukino, how can three people, so bound up in their friends' deaths, let go of the past and move on with their lives? (RH/I)

Disclaimer: If I owned Inuyasha or Sailor Moon, do you honestly think that I would still be trying to get a job? So, no suing…unless you _want_ pocket lint.

That's Life, Folks Prologue: Two Funerals 

Everyone was silent as they lowered the casket into the ground in the Higurashi plot of the cemetery, all of them there for one reason: to mourn the passing of a girl who touched each of their lives and changed them forever. Her death marked one of the saddest days in many of her friends' and family's lives. Without Kagome, it seemed as if the sun had run away from them, leaving them in perpetual darkness.

Her little son, a fox demon who was only five, kept sniffling, trying to hold back his tears until he was alone, away from prying eyes, so that he could scream, cry, and rage at the unfairness of the universe to take away his parents and then give him a mother, only to take her away from him too. He buried his face in the leg of the red hakama that his half-demon friend wore, not wanting to see them cover his mother's body in sand forever.

Sango and her brother, Kohaku, stood together, dressed in the Demon Slayer outfits that marked their profession so clearly, their last promise and testament to their friend and sister. The young miko had given Kohaku his life back and had saved Sango as well, leaving both of them in her debt forever. It saddened them both to have to watch as another friend and family member was buried, never to return to their side to aid them in their battles again. And both knew that, had they been there, they could have saved her life, a guilt that would stay with them forever.

Miroku, a monk and the one who had performed the last rights for Kagome, too felt the loss deeply, knowing that she had given him back his life as well; at the cost of her own. He would always wear the prayer beads that had sealed his Wind Tunnel in memory of her, a constant reminder of what she had done for him. He and Sango shared a look, both of them knowing what she would have said to do, had she still been alive. They would tell the others when the mourning was done.

Her mother, brother, grandfather, and friends all had tears streaming down their faces, the loss of their sister/daughter/granddaughter/friend almost too great a grief to bear. For Souta, it was terrible, knowing that he would never get the chance to apologize to his sister for the things he had said to her. Their mother held the jewel that her daughter had died protecting in her hands, wondering what to do with such an item. She knew that Kagome would have wanted a protector for it, so they had to find a priestess willing to do it or just give it to Inuyasha. Kagome's grandfather just cried, knowing that he shouldn't have outlived his beloved grandchild.

Sesshomaru stood silently off to the side, his little ward, Rin, and Jaken at his side, all three of them mourning the late girl who had gone out of her way, even after he had tried to kill them, to mend the bridge between him and his half-brother, Inuyasha. He glanced at where the _hanyou_ stood, his back stiff and his eyes never leaving the large black coffin as dirt began to pile up on it. The kit had burrowed into his hakamas, seeking comfort from the numb warrior. When the time came, he would train the boy.

Kouga and Ayame, now the Lord and Lady of the Northern Lands, also watched the _hanyou_ and the coffin, wishing they had some way to mend the broken heart that was Inuyasha's. Kagura and Kanna stood beside them, equally worried and saddened. The two of them owed the girl their freedom, their ability to live their own lives. Each of the demons had agreed that they would protect Kagome's family like their own as a last promise to the girl that had brought such an unusually group together.

But for Inuyasha himself, the grief and shock of her death had let him numb to all that was going on around him. Dressed in the red Cloth of the Fire Rat and his red hakama, the same thing he had been wearing when they had first met, he stood out among the mourners, his grief making him believe that they, like him, thought it was his fault she had died. As Shippo burrowed into his pants leg, he decided to raise the kit and train him until he could handle Sesshomaru's training. Her dying words echoed in his ears, repeating over and over like a broken record, a constant stab to his already shredded heart.

"_Please, Inuyasha," she said. "Please find someone to love as much as you loved me. I couldn't stand it if you were miserable because of me." Then she smiled at her son one last time before allowing her lashes to flutter closed and breathed no more._

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She was gone. She was really gone. All of her friends had come to the funeral, had been able to say good-bye. All of them, save one. Rei knelt down in front of the fresh grave of her best friend, a bouquet of white roses in her arms. She ran one hand over the words carved onto the stone, wishing that it had been _her_ grave that they had been forced to dig. That the mourning could have been for _her_ instead of Serena. _Why didn't I move faster? She would still be alive if I had!_

Her fingers caressed the words again, burning them into her mind forever.

_**Serenity Tsukino**_

_**July 30, 1987-**_

_**November 16, 2005**_

_**Beloved Friend, Forever missed.**_

_**R.I.P.**_

Tears swimming in her eyes, Rei set the flowers on the grave and rose, a few lone drops slipping done her cheeks. "I am so sorry, Serena. Please, forgive me where I can not forgive myself."

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Niara: Well, that all for now, folks! See you next time! Oh, and please review! Thank you!


	2. Chapter 1

Niara: Hey! Uh, look, I don't update well and sometimes leave things unfinished, so, please bear with me if it takes me a long time to update any of my stories. Thanks!

And please review, but no flames. Those will be used whenever I next go camping.

BTW, the only time traveling is done by the Scouts in their story line. Kagome never traveled through the well. That whole mess will be explained in a different way at a later point.

Summary: When someone dies, all people have to fight to move on with their lives. But when the person who died is someone like Kagome Higurashi or Serena Tsukino, how can three people, so bound up in their friends' deaths, let go of the past and move on with their lives? (RH/I)

Disclaimer: I own nothing, save my vague resemblance of a plot and any OCs that might happen to appear.

**That's Life, Folks**

**Chapter 1: What Follows After Death**

Emerald eyes stared out the window of the car as the rain splattered against it, making odd shapes and tiny rivers as the water flowed towards the bottom edge of the window. Three years next week…

In a week, it would be the third anniversary of his beloved mother's death. He glanced at the blurred reflection of his silver haired father and sighed softly. Of all the people that had known his mother, Kagome Higurashi, Inuyasha had taken her passing the hardest. The half-demon hadn't removed the ring that he and Kagome had bought to signify their engagement in the years after her funeral, as if it were a constant, throbbing reminder of the first person to judge and accept him for who he was instead of what.

"Papa?" Shippo asked, turning to look at the _hanyou_. "Do you think Mama would be proud of us?"

Inuyasha was silent at first, thinking his answer over in his mind. "You've got nothin' for her not to be proud of when you see her in heaven, kit."

Shippo nodded, ducking his head slightly so that his auburn hair hid the sad look in his expressive eyes. He knew what his father had said was true. And he also knew, in his heart he knew, she was ashamed of him.

Ashamed of him for letting Inuyasha fall into this state of self-loathing and self-disgust. This state of self-destruction.

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'_Great, rain,'_ Rei thought as she trudged up the stairs of the temple, the two bags of groceries clutched tightly to her chest as she bent over to protect them from getting wet. _'Why do these things always happen to me?'_

_/Because you deserve it/_ a nagging voice answered her thought, rising from the depths of her mind. _/Because you let her die./_

Growling softly at herself, Rei set the bags under the cover of the porch of the temple while she hunted for the key, shoving that voice into the pocket of her mind once more. At last she found the key, glad that she might be able to make it inside before she caught a cold. Picking up the groceries, she unlocked the door and entered, removing her wet shoes at the door before making her way to the kitchen. As she put her food in the cabinets, she noticed that her hands were shaking and sighed heavily, knowing that tomorrow was going to be a nightmare.

After setting aside what she was going to use to make her dinner, Rei went into the bathroom and turned on the water, filling the tub as she left to get some dry clothes. The sound of the water was the only other sound to be heard in the large temple as she made her way between the rooms. Her grandfather had finally passed on two years ago and Chad had left at last, returning home to his family, wherever they lived. The others had all gone their separate ways after Serena had died, none of them wanting to be so close to the memories that still haunted Rei, leaving her alone.

Not bothering to close the door, she turned off the water in the now full tub and shimmied out of her wet clothes, pushing the cold, still damp locks of her long ebony hair behind her ear before slipping into the hot water, all the heat in the room suddenly flowing directly towards her. Ducking her head beneath the water, she stayed under the scalding water as long as she could hold her breath before she was forced to surface, water mixing with silent tears as they slid down her pale cheeks.

It was happening again. Every time she tried to drown herself or slit her wrist, something stopped her, some feeling or omen. Or maybe it was her cowardice rearing its head once more, refusing to let her end her life, wash away her guilt with her own blood. Sighing, she leaned back and closed her eyes, absorbing the burning heat from the water.

There she lay for an hour, tears crawling down her beautiful face to splash into the steaming water, counting each second that passed. At last she opened her eyes and stood up, water sliding off of her body with sudden splashes. She stepped out of the tub and onto the rug, ignoring the steam that was rising off of her body and hair. When she stepped out of the bathroom, she completely dry and dressed in dry clothes, her thigh-length hair loose as she went to fix dinner, the silence of her prison echoing in her ears.

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Niara: Thus ends chapter 1. I realize that I'm not really explaining much right now, but all things that are mentioned here shall be explained in the chapters to come. Thanks for listening to my rattling. Please review! It keeps starving authors healthy!


	3. Chapter 2

Niara: (looks extremely pissed) Can you people not take a hint! Review this story, please, or the next chapter (whenever I get it written) isn't getting posted! Get it?

Summary: When someone dies, all people have to fight to move on with their lives. But when the person who died is someone like Kagome Higurashi or Serena Tsukino, how can three people, so bound up in their friends' deaths, let go of the past and move on with their lives? (RH/I)

Disclaimer: I own the messed up plot, any OCs that appear, but not Inuyasha and Sailor Moon.

**That's Life, Folks**

**Chapter 2: The Cemetery**

He had to get out. The apartment that Inuyasha and Shippo were living in, while actually being rather spacious and open, was closing in on him, cramping him. Inuyasha couldn't stand being inside, not today. Dark, purple-gray clouds swirled across the sky, stretching from horizon to horizon, even with his demonic eyesight, the promise of rain heavy in his nostrils, clearing the air some. He stuck his head in the door of Shippo's room and saw that the kit had finally gotten to sleep.

An uncharacteristically soft smile slipped across his face as he closed the door to the young demon's room, the sad look that never left his eyes just a little more prominent. He knew that Shippo believed that Kagome was ashamed of him, but he, Inuyasha, knew that she was as proud of their son as he was. If the dead priestess was ashamed of anyone, really, it was Inuyasha himself.

Throwing another glance at the clock and then out the window, he decided to take a walk, needing the fresh air to clear some of the fog that was always around his mind these days. With one last glance at his adopted son's door, he left, locking the apartment behind him, and slipped out the complex, his baseball cap pulled low to hide his tell-tell ears. Then he began to walk, his feet guiding him to wherever it was fate was determined to lead him this time.

It had often crossed his mind, after her death, that maybe that old saying about destiny and fate was both right and wrong; instead of '_Fate is cruel, Destiny is kind,_' it should be '_Both Destiny and Fate will be cruel to those they chose to be._' To him, it seemed as if they had singled him out to suffer so much in so short a time: first, with Kikyo's death, and now, with Kagome's. In short, he'd been thinking too much, too often, about his life and the road that had led him to meet the reincarnation of The Tragic Priestess Kikyo.

"Papa! Papa! Slow down!" The little voice of the fox demon cut through his thoughts, drawing his feet to a halt, right in front of the very cemetery that he visited every month. He turned and knelt down, catching Shippo as he ran into his arms, tears streaming down his face. Inuyasha felt his once stony heart contract at the smell of the child's tears, knowing that he had unintentionally brought them there.

"Shh," he whispered. "It's alright. I'm not leaving you alone. Not ever."

Shippo offered a tiny hiccup in response as he burrowed into his father's green jacket, determined to never let go of him. "C-can I s-see her, t-too?"

Though the question was muffled, Inuyasha knew just what the kit was asking to do. "Yeah. But we're gonna have ta leave soon. That rain's gettin' closer every minute."

Then he turned and continued into the cemetery, this time with the only other person who knew just why he had become such a shell of his former self. They passed stone after stone, each one topped with a different guardian, each with its own special message about the one it marked. At last, Inuyasha stopped and set Shippo down before Kagome's, both of them staring at the bleak, gray stone as if it could somehow grant them a miracle.

Shippo bowed his head, praying that his mother could somehow bring Inuyasha back to who he was, could fix all the world that was crumbling apart around him, even though she was dead. That she could find some way to help his father keep on living. The wind picked up, carrying a soft sound.

Crying. A woman, crying.

Shippo's eyes grew wide, his gaze locked onto his mother's grave. Then he ran, his short legs pumping, even as Inuyasha yelled out his name. The _kitsune_ didn't stop until he reached the sight of the crying, just as thunder sounded over their heads. A woman, almost a head shorter than Inuyasha, with long raven hair, dressed in a black dress, was kneeling on a grave, trying to muffle the sound of her weeping.

Shippo's eyes grew wide. _Could it be?_ "Mama?"

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Rei looked up at the sky as clouds began to gather overhead, matching her misery today. It was going to be a long, miserable day. Her suicide attempt yesterday hadn't helped her to get ready for her visit to the cemetery today, only to make her more miserable than ever. She turned her purple gaze back down to the ground and began to walk once more, a dark, silent specter on a street filled with color and chatter.

The iron gate that surrounded the cemetery broke her steady pace, leaving her to hesitate right outside the entrance. The sound of a child yelling for his father broke her from the stupor that she stood in, gazing blindly at the black, uncaring metal that stood as a sentinel for the dead.

Her steps were slow, precise, each one measured as she approached the angel topped grave in the center of the sea of gray stone, a beacon of snowy marble that glowed in the dwindling light. The white roses in her arms seemed heavy as she stared at the gentle face of the seraph that so resembled the woman that lay at her feet.

Falling to her knees, uncaring if she stained her dress, she laid the flowers in the guardian's arms. For several minutes, she just knelt there, fighting back the tears that stung at her eyes. Slowly, they began to crawl down her face, leaving tiny, wet paths down her cheeks as she stared at the words carved into the stone, wishing that it wasn't Serena she was doing this for.

The dam that held back so many of her tears finally broke, sending them burning down her pale, drawn face with the fires of guilt to fuel the flow. Strangled sobs escaped her dry throat as she threw her arms around the angel, wishing that Serena could still be alive, that there was still some good left for Rei to do. Good that she believed had flown from her three years prior.

She didn't register the sound of tiny feet hitting the ground, not until they had stopped right next to her. Thunder sounded, reminding her that she needed to head home soon. Then, one tear-choked voice broke through her daze.

"Mama?"

She turned her head, her eyes red from the tears that had already passed and the tears she was now holding back. The boy was young, barely more than eight, ten at the most, with shiny auburn hair and sea green eyes filled with sorrow and wonder. He stared at her, something akin to a faint sparkle of joy beginning to glimmer in his tear soaked face. She stared back, confused as to why this child was talking to her and why his voice was so familiar. "What?"

"Shippo! Come here, kit!" The voice was older than the child's, betraying the fact that the child was with a grown man. The owner appeared from the same direction the child, Shippo, his very aura drawing her attention. Sad, golden eyes met haunted violet as the two stared at each other, their senses almost overwhelmed by what they were telling them. The man broke the gaze first, turning to the little child. "C'mon, Shippo. We need to go home."

The child's eyes grew wide and he turned his eyes back to Rei before darting out of the silver-haired man's reach, a feat that spoke of much practice, and over to where she was kneeling. Shippo took one of her hands and held it in his much smaller ones. "I'm Shippo, miss. This is my father, Inuyasha. What's your name and why are you so sad?"

Inuyasha let out a strangled sound as he approached them, stopping once he reached them. He picked up the boy and bowed to her before he offered his hand. "I'm sorry about this," he said. "He's usually much more behaved than this."

Rei smiled and took the offered hand. "I don't mind." To her relief, her voice was much more even than it had been. "Children should be happy, not sad."

Inuyasha groaned softly as he smelt the change in the weather just before the tears of heaven fell, drenching the ground and them. The woman that Shippo had led him to, on purpose, he was almost certain, sighed in defeat and turned away, trudging through the dirt that was fast becoming mud. "Miss!" The raven-haired woman turned, her tear-stained eyes meeting his once more. He caught up with her, Shippo keeping up with him. "How about I walk you home? It seems only fair, considering…"

The woman smiled. "Thank you, Inuyasha. I would like that."

The rain kept falling, growing ever heavier, as the three of them made their way from the silent cemetery, their shapes blurring, then, at last, fading, as they disappeared into the city.

The rain pounded upon both graves that had been visited, drenching the guardians and soaking the ground, penetrating to where the coffins lay resting. Two sets of ghostly hands held the bouquet of roses that remained dry, despite the driving rain, as two souls watched the new paths they had set their loved ones upon unfold.

Niara: Well…four pages of type…yeah, I guess…Anyway, please review! Now that the two of them have met, we get to have EXPLANATIONS! Very soon, I promise. Oh, what fun…REVIEW!


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